More Churches rush for wedding licences

Jun 03, 2012

Non-traditional churches are rushing to get licences to allow them conduct weddings. According to Ugandan laws, mosques, Anglican and Catholic churches are automatically licensed to wed couples.

By Carol Kasujja

Non-traditional churches are rushing to get licences to allow them conduct weddings. According to Ugandan laws, mosques, Anglican and Catholic churches are automatically licensed to wed couples.

However, non-traditional churches such as Pentecostals, Bahai Temple, the Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists, are required to register for a licence before they can wed couples.

In Kampala alone, there are about 137 Pentecostal churches. Only 50 have licences. Sunday Vision has reliably learnt that in light of this, Pentecostal churches are rushing to get marriage licences.

Some of these churches include Faith Mission of Uganda in Lira, Kansanga Miracle Centre, Deliverance Church, Makindye, Jesus Heals, Kabalagala and Prayer Centre, Muyenga.

The law also provides that each branch of the parent non-traditional church has to be licenced independently, before it is allowed to wed people.

“What you have seen is nothing. Every born-again church is in the process of acquiring a licence. We are rushing to register because we have constructed permanent buildings and parking space, since that is what the Government requires of us in order to wed,” said Alex Mitala, the chairman of the National Fellowship of Born-again Pentecostal Churches in Uganda.

He added: “If the Government law was not lousy and complicating the way we are supposed to conduct weddings, we would not panic because we have the people and capacity to wed anyone who is ready for marriage in order to avoid cohabiting.”

Mitala said they are registering in order to exist legally. “Otherwise we wouldn’t have registered. We are calling on the Government to change that law. As soon as the person has been registered as a pastor, there should be no need to get licences to wed,” he said.


 

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});